It is well known to one who is skilled in the relevant art that the rotation of a bullet by means of a rifled barrel dramatically increases the accuracy of a bullet (i.e., rifling improves accuracy by frictionally engaging the bullet and forcibly causing the bullet to be spun or rotated). It is also well known to one who is a skilled artisan that paint ball rounds or bullets can not be fired through a rifled barrel. That is, the raised rifling within a rifled barrel produces or imparts such a substantial amount of friction on a paint ball or bullet, that the generally fragile outer shell of the paint ball or bullet is ruptured prior to exiting the barrel, thereby resulting in a clogged barrel and a paint ball barrel which does not propel a paint ball in a desired manner.
One previous method for attempting to improve the accuracy of a paint ball or bullet is lengthening the barrel of the gun through which the paint ball or bullet must traverse. Although this previous method does increase the accuracy of a paint projectile, it does suffer from some drawbacks.
For example and without limitation, a lengthened barrel causes a substantially larger amount of friction to be imparted upon the paint ball or bullet, which undesirably requires a greater amount of pressurized gas to overcome the friction (i.e., paint ball or paint marker guns are conventionally fired using both a mechanical and a pressurized gas shot concomitantly). This methodology, in turn, drains the pressurized gas container substantially faster than a shorter or conventional barrel, thereby increasing the cost of utilizing the paint marker or paint ball-gun while concomitantly shortening the duration of time a user of the “extended barrel gun” can play or work before the user is required to change pressurized gas containers or refill the pressurized container.
Another drawback of this prior methodology is that, although the longer barrel does increase the accuracy of the paint projectile, it does not increase the accuracy substantially. That is, the longer barrel does provide a longer conduit for a paint projectile to traverse, thereby allowing for a more stable shot (i.e., as compared to a shorter barrel), but once the paint ball or bullet has traversed the barrel, wind shear and the natural movement of the projectile (i.e., the natural movement of the projectile is solely dependant upon the shape of the projectile) act upon the projectile and force the projectile in random directions (i.e., this phenomena is often called “curve shot”). Furthermore, this curve shot can be dramatically increased if the paint ball or bullet is fired in a manner which allows wind shear to contact the seam of the paint ball (i.e., the seam of a paint ball is a portion of the paint ball which is either is indented or protruding around the circumference of the projectile dependent upon the brand name of the projectile and the manufacturing process of the projectile). Hence, wind shear acting upon a seam of a paint ball or bullet has the same effect as wind shear acting upon a baseball being pitched. That is, the greater the speed at which the baseball is thrown, the greater the effect of the desired baseball pitch (e.g., no spin or “knuckle ball” makes the baseball and paint ball move in a substantially sporadic manner which may move in substantially any direction, and spin to one seam or “curve ball” forces the baseball or paint ball curve to one side or another or in an upward or downward direction).
This phenomena (e.g., wind shear upon a seam) forces a user of the paint marking or paint ball gun to fire a plurality of shots in order to hit only one target (i.e., this technique is commonly referred to as “spray shot”). It should be obvious to one who is skilled in the relevant art that spray shot requires a plurality of paint balls or bullets to be fired which dramatically increases the amount of projectiles needed to play or work with which dramatically increases the cost of playing or working with a paint ball or paint marking gun. Moreover, the aforementioned methodology further decreases the duration of time that a player or user of the gun may play or work before reloading or changing “paint hoppers” (i.e., a paint hopper is a container which is refillable and which operatively feeds paint balls into a gun by use of gravity or mechanical means).
There is therefore a need for a method which allows a paint ball or bullet to be accurately projected from a paint ball or paint marking gun in an efficient manner. There is also a need for a method which forcibly spins a paint ball or bullet in order to provide “pseudo-rifling” to the paint ball or bullet, and which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of prior paint ball or bullet accuracy enhancing methods.